More details on Saudi elections

Loyal blog reader craig asked for more details on the Saudi municipal elections, specifically about the ballots and the timing. Were these elections set up to help calm potential unrest within the kingdom? Possibly.

While no officials here will acknowledge that, the timing is curious. The first round of elections were held in 2005, and at the time, a second round was scheduled for 2009. Those were postponed because the government said it needed more time to prepare for allowing women to vote. Now, the elections are moving forward, and women still aren’t allowed to participate.

Elections commissioner Abdul Rahman Al-Dahmash pointed out at yesterday’s press conference that other nations took a long time to include women in the election process. (Saudi Arabia was founded only about 80 years ago. By comparison, it took the U.S. more than 140 years to allow women to vote.)

As for the ballots themselves, as I noted in yesterday’s post, most of the election information provided to reporters was a primer on what elections are. There were no sample ballots like we’re used to seeing in the U.S. However, if you’d like more details on the Saudi election process, you can find it here.